DRW50

I wondered about that with Mark too. If they're going to go that road they should just cast an American actor.

What happened to her face? Fillers?

I wouldn't mind a Vicky recast, as Sharon needs more family, the show needs more women in that Stacey/Shabnam age range, and Lauren, one of their few successful young female characters, is going for a year, but I hope they have a clearout of some of the female characters who are not working (Whitney, Abi unless they finally figure out how to properly write her mental problems, Nancy). I think Alfie and Kat are too damaged of characters to be able to support another addition, and DTC consistently fails at writing young men, so I'm not looking forward to Spencer, but who knows. The main problem with Mark Jr returning is there is no family unit (the Mitchells are still not a believable family, and the Fowlers are decimated - even what should have been a nice memory of Pauline was turned into sour sniping at Sonia), and again, DTC's failings. I hope it's either Kathy or something totally random.

She also said he'd have to tell Sharon, right? Of course Michelle news would also affect Sharon. If this leads to a Michelle recast or Mark Jr. coming back as yet another mouthbreathing teenage "stud," I'm going to flip a table.

I am going to wait and see, because it may just be a bait and switch. To be honest it's the locking of the Kathy threads at DS when other silly fanfic speculation threads stayed open that makes me most curious. It could just be that their mods are clamping down on that type of talk because it tends to lead to psychoville, but I don't know. The scene where Phil found Ian and said they had to talk (cut...) is the one that most interested me, although that could be nothing. I'm not going to buy into it too much because if I do I'll get angry if it doesn't happen, but let's just say I'm curious.

Thank you for the recap! Last week I watched that episode again where Josie tells Harry about her past, and Joan Chen is much better than I initially gave her credit for.

I do think she handled Adam well. I'll be surprised if they don't sleep together.

I enjoyed more of the episode than I thought I would - the only real bad moments for me were all the cuts to Linda's usual misery, Martin taking jabs at Sonia so we could see her doing yet more toothless sourfaces (it made them both look petty), and the Ronnie hospital scenes, which were hugely disappointing - this should have been a happy moment, and instead Charlie was (to me) clearly hoping his wife would die and was upset when she didn't. The idiocy of Roxy and Charlie talking about their tryst over her hospital bed (which I'm pretty sure she overheard) made my head hurt. Why? I just want to see more of Roxy's leather jacket. Peggy coming back to go and berate Dot was odd, as was her quickly bonding with her and asking her to move to Portugal! I can imagine Grant or Courtney having a few things to say about that. I get that Peggy and Dot are both legends and the show needs these types of characters to share scenes for the anniversary, but it just seemed weird and random as hell. On the other hand, Peggy meeting Mick worked much better than I'd expected, mostly because of how underplayed it was. I really appreciated that we got to see so many moments of Ian being contemplative and vulnerable, instead of being a joke. Beyond his thinking of Lucy, I also loved his long talk with Sharon. We so rarely get to see that and it's so important to both characters and to the integrity of the show. It was difficult to care about the Brannings, as it's been on a loop for days now and the way they write Abi doesn't work for me. I did like the last scene between Peter and Lauren.

It's funny you mention that, because some fans last week were upset that every thread they started on DS about Kathy still being alive was being locked.

I'm glad they finally had more scenes showing him struggling to cope, as I'm so tired of the idea that he's a remorseless killer who loves every minute. And the show too often does nothing to stop that view. Someone on tumblr made this:

Oh definitely. It's just the different approaches of Cynthia trying to make it seem like she's not really enjoying this and it's about standards, and Kenya lapping it up like a gourmet meal. It was amusing.

I'm amused that Cynthia is selling this as about combating double standards, rather than just hating the bitch.

Cringing so, so hard at this Jamie Rose disaster.

Peter Barton in a promo for what must have been a campy mess...

No wonder he went back to GH...

I didn't know Rick Edelstein was involved with this show. Poor Barbara Stanwyck, trying and failing to muster up the right absurdist camp for this fading genre.

She was a nasty woman - I had forgotten how much until watching some of this time again. Putting all of her anger for Woody's affair onto Linc screwed him up, which the show could have run with but instead badly mishandled with that recast and murder mystery. I didn't realize Lee Bryant played her. I liked her when she temped as Lyla.

That's how I always remember Marcy too. And yes she was very harsh and fake. Linc's mother was a dumbass to buy her act. The woman who played Hannah was a good actress but I wanted someone to shitkick that woman all across Luther's Corners.

That's the first Marcy Breen (don't know who the actress is). I guess she was recast because she was a little too polished.

Watch those ratings fall with each word spoken! Maybe this wasn't any worse than what came before, and viewers had just had enough. With that said, the gunfire on the truck makes my eyes go back. Whenever I see Alexis there I always remember Chris Schemering's description - "Alexis, tricked out in a nun's habit..."

Almost none of Loving is on Youtube. I'd forgotten Kiberd popped up on Loving. I remember now reading that he had a joke scene with Shana where they both yelled, "I feel sorry for the jerk who's married to you!"

Yes. Other than maybe the early 80s or the early 00s, I'd say ATWT was always more sedate than GL. Just compare Bert (whose problem was being too emotional and needy) with Nancy (whose problem was not being emotional enough). Even the 70s, which mostly seemed to be sedate for GL - in reading about them, had some nutty, nutty plotlines like Kit Vested Gone Wild.

Based on his past political donations, that helps explain the tone of the show's "humor." And the fear of diversity which he only changed somewhat after the show was dragged through the mud for a period of several years. It's a shame, as SNL, while always full of racism and sexism, once tried to be somewhat cutting edge. Now they make Mad TV seem current.

When Daryl cries I mostly roll my eyes.

Cheri Oteri talks about why she wasn't part of the show. http://www.zap2it.com/blogs/cheri_oteri_explains_why_she_didnt_appear_snl_40_anniversary_special-2015-02